2025 has been a rollercoaster ride for Naomi Osaka. Making a comeback to court after a hiatus of two years – in which she embraced motherhood – hasn’t been easy. She began the season ranked just outside the top 50, pushing herself for a return to form. The four-time slam queen mostly failed at first until she found her groove. Over the last three months, the 27-year-old has proved her mettle with an inspirational Montreal and US Open run. However, the real objective is far from accomplished. While Osaka is steady, she feels the heat of chasing the pole position back.

Osaka is currently competing at the Wuhan Open, where she kicked off her campaign with a solid performance on Tuesday. In the R64, the Japanese star pulled off a stunning victory despite trailing in the first set against Canada’s Leylah Fernandez. Though lagging a set behind, Osaka didn’t lose focus and leveled the fight before eventually emerging victorious. She is now in the R32 in Wuhan. With each win, Osaka now feels the weight of expectations on her shoulders.

As the endgame of the 2025 season approaches, the former World No.1, who is currently ranked at No.16, is yet to break into the top 10 again. The target she set for herself is slightly playing on her nerves. “That’s kind of the tough part that I was dealing with today,” she revealed in an interaction with Tennis365 on October 7. She admitted, “I want to end the year in the top 10, but I don’t want to stress myself out too much about it.”

Talking about her campaign in New York last month, she said, “During the US swing, when I had a good run, I wasn’t really thinking about rankings, other than, like, getting seated in this land.” The four-time major winner hasn’t been able to clinch another slam title since her return to tennis, “Mentally, it was just really tough for me today.”

However, she knows that it is all “a part of the season that’s just tough, you know. I think I’m, like, really happy to have gotten through it, and I think it’ll be easier from now on.” Since Wimbledon, Osaka’s trajectory has been going up, both in rankings and form. In Montreal, she was able to reach the final of a WTA 1000 event after a long time. Unfortunately, she lost the trophy to Canadian teenage sensation Victoria Mboko. But the Japanese star maintained the momentum at the US Open.

After five years, she was able to make it to the semis of the American hard court slam. Although she lost in the semifinal to Amanda Anisimova, her overall campaign was a huge success with deep runs. Breaking into the top 20 brought her some repreive.

Naomi Osaka speaks about her winning start in Wuhan

Speaking of her maiden encounter of the event this week, Naomi Osaka was definitely struggling in the initial stages. Leylah Fernandez left no room for any chances. But then the former No.1 displayed class with dominating winners and commanding strokes. With a scoreline of 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, she was able to find her footing in Wuhan.

Osaka’s previous best at the tournament was reaching the R64 back in 2017. She is playing in Wuhan for the second time after eight years. It appears she is determined to leave a lasting impression on local fans. Reacting to her hard-fought win over Fernandez, she said, “Today, yeah, I mean, I feel like I just have to go for my shots more. I was kind of looking at the wall. You know, the people that I’ve known here previously, and they all seem to be big hitters, so I’m just trying to do that a little bit more.”

Thanking the Chinese crowd for their constant encouragement, she added, “The support was great today. I’m just really grateful. I feel like whenever I come to China, everyone shows me a lot of love, and I appreciate it so much.”

Osaka can strengthen her goal of reaching the top 10 even further with a title in Wuhan. She has yet to win a big WTA trophy this season. In case she ends up at the business end of the event, she would like to lift the trophy too. It will be intriguing to see if she can make it happen.